ARMENIAN MIGRANTS APPLY FOR RETURN TO HOMELAND

Panorama.am
16:48 04/04/06

“About 70 Armenian migrants in Switzerland turned to Federal
Administration of Migration in Bern with the request to send them back
to homeland,” informed the representative of Swiss Administration
Philip Goley in the interview to Panortama.am. “At the moment
Switzerland is waiting for their passports,” P. Goley informed.

To note, the program of return of Armenian migrants on the basis of the
agreement between Armenian and Swiss Governments has been working for
6 years already. In the course of the first stage of the realization
of the program 9 families (24 people) returned to Armenia. As the
head of RA Migration Department Gagik Aghanyan mentioned 5 families
of the above mentioned 9 have already established their own business,
3 people passed courses of specialized education, 4 people received
the proper grants and pensions.

>From November 2005 the RA Government began realizing the same program
with French Government, whereas it is necessary to have interstate
agreements to be able to return migrants. Armenia has such agreements
signed with Litva, Denmark and Switzerland. At the moment negotiations
are conducted with a number of other countries. In the meantime, as the
OSCE representative in Armenia Ovsanna Babayn informed Panorama.am,
Armenian citizens generally leave for Russia (90%), the Ukraine and
Kazakhstan for work.